Posts by Diana
Photo Secrets Revealed
Go behind the scenes with a photographer at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest and find out the secret of the “serious” photos taken of a chimpanzee named Burrito.
Read MoreChimpanzee Identification Contest
Do you want to win a 2017 Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest calendar? If you can correctly identify each chimpanzee in all seven photos below, you’ll be entered to win! Fine print: You can only enter once, so be sure of your answer before submitting your responses. The winner will be chosen at random among those with…
Read MoreChimpanzees playing = your #GivingTuesday thanks!
Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest supporters have done it again! We initially made it a goal to raise $12,000 today for Giving Tuesday. That goal has been surpassed, and we have a new challenge – a supporter at a distance is putting a matching challenge check in the mail for the next $1,000 raised, so I’ve…
Read MoreHow do chimpanzees walk?
Chimpanzees are considered quadrupedal (walking on four limbs), but they don’t have four legs like many other mammal species. Like humans, they have two legs and two arms. They not only share our handy (pun intended) opposable thumbs, but they have “thumbs” (technically referred to opposable toes) on their feet too. Animals with four…
Read MoreFoxie the Chimpanzee and Poppy the Troll
Foxie’s love of troll dolls started over eight years ago when she arrived at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. She still loves the old school trolls, but now that there’s a new DreamWorks Animation film called Trolls, and you can bet that Foxie is going to benefit from the marketing. Foxie likes the songs by Justin Timberlake…
Read MoreTea & Play
Today’s enrichment theme was “tea party” so we took that literally and made two types of tea for the chimps to enjoy after we had finished cleaning their castle. Post-tea time was spent on important things like diving into the nesting position, staring at a troll doll, and some lazy play with friends. Watch the…
Read MoreA Missy in Motion…
Today was a great day! Way back in the spring, Charlie Nickerson of Troop 80 in Seattle contacted J.B. about doing his eagle scout project to help the sanctuary. We’re not able to say yes to all requests we get from people interested in doing volunteer projects like this, but we had just had a…
Read MoreRainy Memories
You have probably heard about, or maybe you are experiencing, the dramatic storm that is hitting the Pacific Northwest today. The majestic Cascade Mountain Range protects Cle Elum from a lot of the wetter weather that our friends to the west in the Seattle area receive, and we are certainly not getting the extreme rain…
Read MoreAutonomy and Confidence
Last month I wrote about “missing chimpanzee” Foxie, who has been doing a lot of solo exploring on the hill this summer. In May, Anna shared that Negra had been venturing out further on Young’s Hill than she had ever been before. Well, we can add Burrito to this growing list of chimpanzees who have…
Read MoreMissy’s 2nd Chance & Those Left Behind
This year for Great Apes Giving Day, I decided to highlight Missy’s story. If you are new to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest or haven’t been following every single blog post, you may have missed the story of how Missy almost didn’t make it to her sanctuary home. Take a minute to read this story on our…
Read MoreThis is for the activists
Last night I was going through some old documents and newspaper articles and reading about the history of chimpanzees being retired to sanctuaries, and, in particular, activists who worked to get chimpanzees out of Buckshire, where the seven chimpanzees living at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest came from. I will share more details at a later time,…
Read MoreAnnie Bird’s Birthday
Today we celebrate Beautiful Annie’s birthday. For the breakfast party in the greenhouse, we chose to have a bird theme because of the bird noises that she, uniquely, makes when she is relaxing. The theme turned tropical with coconut, watermelon (that’s tropical, right?), pineapple, and fruit smoothie. Plus some primate chow, which Annie is…
Read More